* Basking in Twilight: Stephenie Meyer's The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide arrives April 12.

Ten lucky Twilight fans from around the world have come to this metropolitan Canadian city to meet the mega-selling author whose young-adult novels about an alluring vampire and his human soul mate have entranced them since 2005.

It's hard to say who's enjoying this total Twilight talkfest more — the attendees or the writer.

"I just love having the chance to sit down with a small group of fans," says Meyer, who is looking a little more Hollywood these days and a bit less like a suburban mom of three. "Bigger events are just too nerve-racking."

For this literary star, the days of chatting with a few fans at a local bookstore are over. Meyer is an international celebrity. Her books sell in dozens of countries. The film versions are hotly anticipated. Fan sites have gone viral.

This two-day chat fest with Meyer, which took place last Friday and Saturday, was a top-secret affair. Even the attendees weren't told where in the world they'd be meeting with Meyer until after they were notified they were among the chosen 10.

But every Twilight fan intuitively knows why Vancouver, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, is a logical meeting place — the cast and crew of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Part 2, the final movies based on the four-book series, have been filming here since mid-February.

In roundtable discussions with Meyer at a Vancouver hotel, the winners discuss with finesse and endless authority vampire anatomy, werewolf legends, the back stories of the series' minor characters and, of course, the Edward/Bella/Jacob love triangle. (Jacob is the werewolf who also loves Bella and is played in the films by the often shirtless Taylor Lautner.)

But like seasoned journalists (many of these fans blog about the series), they're also here to ferret out juicy details: When will Meyer publish a new novel? What's it like being on the Twilight film set? What's new in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, a 543-page encyclopedic companion that Little, Brown will publish in hardcover for $24.99 on April 12? (The e-book will be available for $11.99 on April 13.)

Can you explain to us what your company “Have Trunk Will Travel” does exactly?

Gary Johnson: We have six elephants, five females and one breeding bull. Four babies were born with us and that’s very rare. That’s a huge achievement, because asian elephants are an endangered species. All over the world there are only about 35,000 of them left. We have eight full-time co-workers that take care of the elephants. Tai, an female, asian elephant is Rosie in “Water for Elephants”. All our elephants, apart from the bull, have played in lots of movies, ads and TV shows before. For Tai, movie sets and directors are nothing new. We’ve had her for 35 years now and because of the experience she has by now working with her is really pleasant.

Do you and Tai have to work hard in this movie?

Johnson: Especially in this movie we’ve worked a lot. It was very exciting as well though. I loved everyone who worked on this movie. People were realy respectful and always friendly. The director Francis Lawrence was a real gentleman and did a great job in my opinion. He drove to our ranch in California a dozen times to watch the training and to spend time with Tai. That’s how he knew how to shoot the scenes with her later on.

How much time did Reese Witherspoon with Tai? The relationship between Marlena and Rosie is very important for the story right?

Johnson: Reese Witherspoon visited the ranch often to train with Tai, because she has some really physical scenes with her. She had to climb onto Tai, just how it is known from circuses when the girl sits on top of the elephant. Tai lay on her side and when she got up Reese had to learn to stand on her trunk. They had to train a few different options to climb on top then. In one scene Tai stands on her back legs and Reese directly beneath her. In another scene Tai does a headstand and Reese dances beneath her at the same time. That’s really complicated and we had to train those scenes with a choreographer. The timing had to be right. In another scene Reese stands on top of the elephant. Another time Tai sits on a base and stands on her back legs and Reese then climbs onto her back. They had to train that scene a very long time. Tai does things like that regularly and it’s part of her routine. She practices daily and a lot.

How difficult was that for Reese?

Johnson: She was extraordinary and told us she did gymnastics as a child. She grew up with animals and has always felt comfortable with them. All three main actors, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz were very impressive. We’re very lucky that we were able to work with them. They’re just incredible.

What are the most exciting scenes with Tai and Reese the audience will get to see?

I think my favourite scene is the last one in which Reese stands on Tai. That’s a very dramatic moment. Although she does a few different routines, this might be the most spectacular one. At one point she lies on Tai’s back and Tai dances with her all through the arena. That scene is very impressive as well. In another very funny scene Christoph Waltz (August) and Reese dance on a podest and Tai gets so jealous, she tips Christoph on the shoulder. Then she steals his hat, throws it on the ground and tramples on it. It’s like she wanted to say, “Let Reese be. She’s mine.” Rosie also seems to feel that Christoph’s role is not really a likeable one.

How hard and intensive was the training on the movie set?

Johnson: There were two trainers on set every day, my assistant Joanne Smith and I. Tai had to practice a lot of different routines and that meant a lot of work. We had a month for the initial preparation and after that we practices for three months, daily, to rehearse all the routines. In a particularly difficult scene Tai had to draw a plug out of the ground. Normally you use a plug on the ground to chain an elephant. In the movie, Rosie pulls the plug out of the ground, sneaks to a barrel filled with lemonade, drinks, sneaks back to her initial place along with the plug, pushes it back into the earth and pretends nothing ever happened. We had to practice a lot for that scene. Tai also had to lie down in a circus waggon and pretend that she was hurt. For this scene we needed a lot of time as well.

What about the scene where she runs away from the circus, gets to a city and destroys a lot of things there?

Johnson: In that scene Christoph Waltz is very angry at Rosie, because she sneaks to the nearest villages and eats the vegetables from the market. Rob (Jacob) has to search for her and get her back. For that scene we needed about 300 extras and a few gamesmanship for Tai. There was just too much going on there, children on bikes and a lot of people. In all that chaos Tai had to act and we couldn’t just stand in front of the camera and tell her what to do. She had to eat the corn for example. but not the potatoes. That was a really special command but she did great. As an award she got an apple, a carrot and a little candy. Elephants love that, but Tais favourite sweets are “Jelly Beans”. Sometimes we even clap her on the shoulder and tell her that she did well. She understands that as well.

In the movie we fall in love with Rosie. How intelligent and emotional are elephants?

Johnson: I don’t think that Tai really knows that she’s acting. She does know though that something will happen, cause she’s done that before already. She understands what it means when the director shouts “action” or “cut”. We’ve trained her to stop anything she does as soon as the director shouts “cut”.

How did Robert Pattinson interact and work with Tai?

Johnson: Robert has a few close-ups with her and Tai thought him to be very likeable the first time she saw him. When Rosie is hurt he takes care of her. Robert never got loud with her and their relationship was adorable and easygoing. I think she liked him a lot.

How well does Tai act? Has she played a lot of leading roles before?

Johnson: A lot of moviemakers told us how impressed they were by her and that she’s always done everything right. They also thought she was very abiding in every shot. I think she’s a good actress.

How did you shot the key scenes in which August isn’t exactly nice to Rosie?

Johnson: That scene was manipulated with CGI effects in post production. The wounds which can be seen on Rosie are not real. They’ve been put on with make-up. When Christoph shot the scene in which he was supposed to hit her with a stick, the stick was just about 25 cm long. He did the movement but never touched her.

That means that during those extremely emotional scenes Tai was never in danger and always really happy?

Johnson: Of course Tai was always safe and we always took care of her. Nobody would ever allow an animal to get hurt. Nobody will ever hurt our elephants. But on screen that emotion is shown pretty well, simply because Chrstoph is a great actor. When he acts his voice gets higher which makes him sound dangerous. Tai’s eyes were very responsive to that. It can be seen in the movie. She looks at him as if she wanted to say, “Hey, what are you doing with me?”. That’s exactly what she has to do for the role as well.

I can imagine that in the 30s there were circus animals that weren’t treated that well?

Johnson: It’s like with every aspect of life. There are those and those. I like to thing that most people in the 30s were good and took care of their animals. There are evil doctors and lawyers and obviously there are people who don’t treat their animals the way they deserve to be treated. In some places animals were surely mistreated. Nowadays with the supervision things like that couldn’t happen. We thing it’s positive that there are that many rules to keep the animals safe and happy. We are under constant supervision and that’s good.

Reese Witherspooon told us that she was very emotional on Tai’s last day on set because she was really close to her. Was that a very emotional moment for everyone?

Johnson: She cried and was very sad. They had a really strong relationship and Rob had to fight with tears as well. Of couse you can’t compare animals and human beings but I think that Tai and other elephants can develop a very strong relationship to humans as well – especially ours since they’re constantly learning and working with humans. We take them to shoot movies, take them to the beach or the forest and they have a lot of fun. Our relationships are based on mutual trust. Working with Tai was very touching and emotional for Reese, Rob and Christoph. Watching Reese and Tai work one could see that they had a special bond.

How much fun did Tai have while working?

Johnson: I think she had a lot of fun while working on “Water for Elephants”. Elephants are built for walking, moving a lot and they’re very intelligent. They need phsyical and mental challenges.

How did it come to be that you work with elephants?

Johnson: I’ve loved animals ever since I was a kid. My family had farm animals so I grew up with them. When I was ten, there was a family in southern california that had a petting zoo with lots of different animals. I began cleaning up in those zoos and later on, when I was older, I was allowed to help riding the elephants. With sixteen the opportunity to get an elephants presented itself and since then I’ve always worked with animals. My wife’s step-father was a famous elephant trainer and at the age of 14 my wife learned it as well. We’ve both been doing this for a very long time now and we’re really passionate about the elephants.”

The movie is going to be suspenseful and emotional. Do you think that people will learn a lot about elephants and how extraordinary they are?

Johnson: I think that the movie will raise awareness, just because the story is really exciting and because the younger generation will love to see Rob and Reese together. I think the audience will see how intelligent elephants are. We really hope we can raise awareness about the animals that are kept captive and also the ones in the wilderness.

At the end I want to ask you: You’ve felt drawn to elephants you whole life. What’s the magic that’s the foundation of this book, this movie and our love to elephants?

Johnson: They’re very intelligent animals. You just have to watch them while they’re eating. It’s unbelievable and magical. It’s just really impressive how they eat the hay with their trunk. They’re majestic. They also have wonderful eyes. They just have something about them that draws you in.

"She's created a new character. I was really impressed," says Meyer. "I've only really seen her as (the human) Bella so to have her step up and change it in the right way — she didn't have to talk to me. She knew. She knows the character so well now. She has really good instincts and, she looks amazing."

In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY's Carol Memmott coming Thursday, Meyer also shares details on the wedding gown Kristen Stewart wears in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, she dishes about Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and Meyer talks about the creatures - some watery, some dark - she hopes to write about next. Full story tomorrow.

TotalFilm Robert Pattinson admits that Bel Ami is still in editing because studio honchos are worried about alienating audiences used to his goody-two-shoes persona in the Twilight franchise.

RPattz plays the titular Bel Ami in an adaptation of Maupassant's classic novel about a 19th century womanising, social-climbing journalist who sleeps his way round Paris.

Filming in the UK and Budapest opposite leading ladies Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristen Scott Thomas wrapped in spring 2010 and was originally slated for a Christmas release. It currently has no confirmed opening date.

"We were really true to the book and because the guy is basically a shit who wins everything at the end it’s really difficult to market it – especially with me in it," Pattinson tells TF exclusively.

"Everyone’s worried that everyone’s going to be thinking, ‘Oh I want him to be nice, he’s got to be nice to all the ladies’."

Bel Ami, though, is an unrepentant cad. "I know," laughs the Water For Elephants star, "But that was fun!

Introduction:
You don’t have to be intelligent to understand that, generally speaking, there’s worse than becoming a poster guy who has to hide from hordes of screaming fans into five-star hotels all around the world. And Robert Pattinson sounds very intelligent. He’s young (he’s turning 25 in May), has a lot of money, success, a job which loads of people envy him and could have all the women he wants. Yet, it stands out a mile he’s not happy about it. And I guess the reason is that he is intelligent enough to understand not to be so special.

He’s very down to earth, while everyone around him goes crazy. That makes him a good guy, but terribly alone. We wouldn’t be surprised if one day he decided to pack and leave. I met him some weeks ago for the promotion of his new movie Water For Elephants.
He’s just bought a dog. He really wanted it. “I don’t know how I’ll handle it, but if you have to travel around the world, it’s good to have a mate. I took him from the animal shelter: I laugh if I think that he went from a shelter to a suit of the Four Season Hotel.” It’s not what happened to him. Well, almost.
Rob was born in London; his mother worked for a modeling agency, and his father Richard, imported vintage cars from the U.S; when he was a child he thought he would deal with International relations. But then he got the part of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. It happened by chance as well as for the the role of Edward Cullen that has changed his life.
Music was his passion, but he had to put it aside for now. “I play sometimes, but you have to be concentrated to do it seriously, and I do not have so much time right now.” I point out that many actors do both, he bursts out laughing “yeah, but look at the results. It’s embarassing”.
So, apart from changing the subject when speaking about his relationship with Kristen Stewart (not even Oprah managed to make him talking), Robert says he spends his time working (mostly) and among beers, gym, cigarettes and junk food. But he really needs to sleep, he adds. “I worked last night. I’ve just come back from Lousiana”. Luckily at that age, sleep deprivation doesn’t make wrinkles on your face, but makes it look sexier somehow.
In Louisiana he’s shooting the first and the second part of Breaking Dawn at once. The first one is coming out on November 18th, 2011. Meanwhile in LA, Rob’s trying to build a career outside of Twilight. In Water For Elephants he plays Jacob, a veterinary school student struck by his parents’ death. With no money and no home, he starts wandering until he sees a train of a circus and jumps on it. There he meets two creatures: the elephant Rosie, and the star of the show Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), who is also the despotic ringmaster’s wife (Christopher Waltz)

Is it true that the first thing you do when you are given a script is read the first and the last line?
“If the screenwriter is good, the beginning and the its work and there’s a 75% chance it’s a good story. Otherwise, the best thing to do is forget it. Today the problem is that scripts with the worst-written first pages are those that are made into movies and and make more money.”

Mar 29, 2011

One need not be very smart to understand this: generally speaking, there are fates worse than to become a poster-boy forced to hide from fans within the walls of five-star hotels scattered around the world. And Robert Pattinson seems that it is quite clever. But it also seems that, personally speaking, his fate has not taken the right way. He is young (in May will make 25 years), has a lot of money, success, a job, the actor, that half the world's envy and, potentially, all women want. Yet we see from a mile away that is not happy. And the reason, I believe, lies in the fact that it is smart enough to understand that it is not so special. He stayed with his feet on the ground on the neck and head while all around him went mad. That makes him a good person, but horribly alone. I've met a few weeks ago to promote the film Like Water for elephants .
Born in London in a normal family - his mother worked in a modeling agency, her father was selling vintage car - thought to be a great deal of international relations. The part of Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came almost by accident, and the same for the role that would change his life: the vampire Edward Cullen in Twilight.
Like Water for Elephants is a romantic movie.
"What attracted me is the historical period, the Great Depression, and the circus. It's fascinating. "
The fact remains that it is primarily the story of Jacob and Marlena.
"But even if at first you may think:" Now he arrives, he sees it, likes it and run away together, "the story is more complex. Jacob does not want to take, it is only prepared to give. The best relationship that might exist. "
You could have an affair with a married woman?
"Life is not black or white. There are married people who did not even attend, we can define marriage? But there's one thing I never understood: why do people betray. "
He does not understand a behavior practiced by the majority of the population?
"I understand the impulse, but not how you can maintain long-standing two reports. And though I realize that can happen to those who have children, one truly escapes me why engagements should choose to have four girls at once. It must be a living hell, especially for the man. "
Does not believe in betrayal. And love till death does not separate, like the film?
"My parents met when my mom was 17 and my father 25, are still together and seem very happy. I grew up believing that we can be together all life. "

EmpireOnLine Love him (teenage girls everywhere) or loathe him (their boyfriends), Robert "R.Pattz" Pattinson is apparently here to stay. With Water For Elephants out soon, he's gearing up to star in Cosmopolis for David Cronenberg. Yes, you read that right. Yes, this may mean that you have to start liking him. Here's what he had to say about his role.

"I'm just astonished that I've been cast. I'd read the script before and thought, 'Wow, this is insane. But insane and difficult.' And then, out of nowhere, my agent said, 'Do you want to do it?' I'd never thought about working with Cronenberg, but I've always loved his movies. It just never came into my head that there would ever be that opportunity.

"Y'know, there are so few auteurs left. The one thing that pisses me off about working in films is when you start a project and then, suddenly, two days before you start, there's a massive rewrite to make an R-rated movie into something that's PG-13, and it's a totally different story. As soon as that line's been crossed, you know you're not making a movie anymore. You're making a...a... fridge magnet. But with people like Cronenberg you know that, no matter what, there will be a movie at the end, and it will be solid and self-contained, and it's not made for any other reason than it being a movie."

Pattinson also confirmed that, as far as he is concerned there will be no further Twilight outings following the two-part Breaking Dawn which finishes the current series. And he swears that he didn't know what he was getting himself into with Stephenie Meyer's massive vampire saga.

"I thought at the time, with Catherine Hardwicke and Kristen Stewart, it was going to be an indie movie. It seemed really interesting: a teen vampire movie that was going to be like Thirteen and really serious. I had no idea it was going to be this big thing you'd get on Burger King hats."

Water For Elephants is out on May 4, and the full interview with His Dreaminess is in the new issue of Empire, out Thursday.

Sara Vilkomerson: Oh well gee, where to begin! I guess we should start with Twilight. Are you familiar with it?

Josh: How about let’s assume I’m not totally up to speed on it. Just for the sake of this exercise, you understand.

Sara: Mmmhmmm, sure.

In my humble opinion there is an essential part of Twilight that girls go nuts for that has got a lot to do with the whole vampire, undying-love (literally!) stuff. Which is that the main character, Bella, considers herself clumsy and awkward and not particularly beautiful, which I think speaks to at least 90 percent of how girls felt in high school. And then the coolest, hottest, most unattainable boy in school picks her out as the object of his affection. This is heady heady crack-for-girls stuff already. So then they cast Robert Pattinson in the role.

Sara: Anyway, Robert Pattinson had the tough job of filling the shoes of a character that is described at length as being preternaturally good-looking, and he succeeded because, among other things, he happens to be preternaturally good looking. He just is.

If fans of the series were at all worried that the undoubtedly bizarre nature of "Breaking Dawn" was going to be toned down for the next two films, RPattz all but put those fears to rest in the EW interview.

"There’s some interesting and weird stuff going on—very, very, very strange," he said of the final installment, "It’s great. For a big mainstream movie, it’s the most obscure storyline and really outside the box. It’s a horror movie. I’ve seen a few bits, and I just can’t see how it’s going to be PG 13… unless they cut everything out."

But, it seems like there's definitely some scenes we'll be wanting to keep our eyes wide open for. Robert, who said he got back in shape for "Breaking Dawn"'s numerous shirtless scenes, revealed, "Literally one day after my last shirt-off scene I started being all [mimics eating voraciously] nom, nom, nom. And I didn’t realize I had one more [shirt-off] scene, and you can see it in one of them—I’m clearly [exaggeratedly sucks in his stomach and cheeks]."

And while we're certainly not ready to let the many variations of shirtless Rob and the franchise go, it seems like he is—terrible pun alert!—ready to sink his teeth into new things. "I literally feel like we’ve been doing it my whole life," the 24-year-old said with a laugh regarding making the "Twilight" films.

But there's one aspect in particular Robert is most ready to big adieu to: those piercing contacts he wears in order to play Edward Cullen!

"Those contacts…My God, I’ll be glad to see the last of those," he said, "I actually want to get some kind of plastic explosive. I want to reanimate them into something so I can kill them. It’s embarrassing for me—after so many years, it’s still a process every single morning. Everybody else has figured out how to do it, and then there’s two people holding me down because I can’t do it myself." Uh, where do we sign up for that job?

Still, Robert, who will jump right back into "Water for Elephants" press tours as soon as "Breaking Dawn" wraps, wouldn't necessarily be opposed to starring in another franchise like "Twilight" or "Harry Potter," but only under certain conditions.

"I would [do another]," he said, "But I’d want to have more input. The only horrible thing about being part of a franchise..well, not horrible..no, it is horrible…is that the bigger and bigger you get, it’s quite difficult to break out of stuff. When you’ve been playing the same part, you can’t suddenly start playing it differently. It takes away a little bit of the creative kind of..urge."

But before Robert, who is also in the midst on working on diverse projects such as "Bel Ami" and "Cosmopolis," thinks about taking on another big screen adaptation, it seems like he's got his sights set on an even riskier venture: comedy!

While he joked that his "agents will never let me do them," the actor, who said he's read a few comedic scripts, still seems ready to take on the opportunities if they were to come his way. "Comedy is scary," he admitted, later adding, "That’s why I kind of wanted to do it. I think that’s the only way to do it: You gotta be like, "Okay, I’m going to jump off the moon."

One of the girls who met R/K at the movies saw them last night at dinner.

"Met Robert Pattinson again last night and saw Kristen Stewart while we were having dinner. Didn’t get a chance to talk to her, but talked briefly to Rob and he was SO nice."

"They were in a group together.. I don’t really want to say the restaurant because I do respect their privacy but it was in Squamish. We were sitting beside them for about 4 hours or so and let them be as I’m sure they are sick of being harassed. Then as we were leaving we bumped into him on our way out and he allowed a picture to be taken with him. He was incredibly nice and down to earth."

A modern-day take on the girl-next-door-meets-Prince Charming fairy tale—except Prince Charming is a 100-year-old bloodthirsty vampire—Bella is a role model for this generation. Instead of playing coy, she relies on her shrewd wit to evade death and fight for her future with picture-perfect Edward.

''[Water for Elephants] makes you think about opportunities and missed opportunities and how important it is to live a full life.'' —Reese Witherspoon ''That was the other thing about Water for Elephants. There was something about the posture of the '30s, something that I felt my body could fit into — it was quite languid, which I find easier. I think modern-day things generally, I don't understand. I can watch actors move and there's something, there's some kind of snappy thing to it and I don't... I'm not snappy. There is a lack of snappiness." —Robert Pattinson ''There's something about her. She's just this genuinely nice person. I don't know if she puts an effort into creating a nice aura, but her mood dissipates over the whole set. It was a completely different environment from when she wasn't there. All the kids and the animals were just drawn to her.'' —Pattinson talking about Witherspoon ''He's dedicated. And he loves what he does. It's amazing, he got such an incredible opportunity so young and he intends to use every bit of it to make creative choices from here on out.'' —Witherspoon talking about Pattinson ''Well, it's a boy thing, right? To have dirty fingernails and dirty hair, and his clothes were dirty all the time. It was a nice escape for him to be tan and in the sun all the time instead of the vampire gear.'' —Witherspoon talking about Pattinson

The real prototype of these generational mutations is Rob Pattinson: 24 years old, and Englishman in Hollywood, where he became famous worldwide playing the pale vampire Edward Cullen (and, even before, Cedric Diggory, a model student at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series). He jokingly admits to be “nothing special, one of those who live in hotels and travel the world”. However, he created a new masculine identity, surprising even for the Facebook sub-culture who’s made him a star via the social network. Today is the eve of an important test for him: his new movie, WFE: he’s the protagonist of a melodramatic film, set in a circus, from the bestselling book by Sara Gruen. […]

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning pop pills, pee on guitars, make out with girls and kick all kinds of ass while on stage performing as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie -- two members of the 70's band, The Runaways. The teenage girl group is brought together through their shared love of music and their equally miserable lives. They're like feral children set free on the road, and things stay wild. The girls have to contend with bottles being thrown at them, a verbally abusive and sadistic manager and male rocker machismo while on tour. Whatever gets dished out, the ladies take it like pros and prove they can party like rock stars in the process.